nathalie-kalbach

Chase Your Stars Fool!

“Chase your stars fool, life is short” – I toned down this very bright red, orange and yellow acrylicpaint-ed background with some gesso and added some stenciling in yellow on top using my Batik Stencil.

I stamped with my new Circle Drive ArtFoamie Stamp and black acrylic paint and added some stars with black archival ink using my Star Tag Cling Rubber Stamp.

I adhered a magazine image and painted over it with acrylic paints and Neopastels. I love how soft those Neopastels are and how beautifully they can be blended.

Here is a supply list with most of the materials I used to create this page:


Nat

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Tour of the American Ancients Part #3

This is part #3 of our road trip through mostly the South West of the U.S driving about 2,300 Miles which called Tour of the American Ancients because we visited many historical sites. Now this part is leading through some newer …not so ancient sights, but it was still super fun. I am sharing some highlights,You can find Part #1 here. And Part #2 here.

Coming from Petrified Forrest National Park we drove to Sedona where we stayed two days in a beautiful airBnB.

The Chapel of the Holy Cross is one of the most beautiful modern chapels I have ever seen. It was completed in 1956.

On the way up to the chapel in the garden – Love this!

We continued our ride often times on the old Route 66

I am loving those old motel signs and of course the Roadkill cafe always makes me laugh with their slogan “you kill it, we grill it”

We took a little detour to this ghost town …well…is it still a ghost town if 10 people seem to live there?…and

how often do they get their mail? I know, I know but these are the questions that run through your mind when you see this.

As we were on our way to Joshua Tree National Park we decided to stop at Roy’s cafe again – we were there 10 years ago and this abandoned motel with the gas station in the middle of nowhere is just too cool.

The old lobby is still intact, preserved….

Played a lot with my camera – and really love this shot.

We stayed in a nice cottage near Joshua Tree National Park – we had a good time sitting in these chairs outside, until one morning a Tarantula Hawk came flying by like on a mission and I knew this bugger was dangerous and then I looked it up and got even more scared about it. It has the second most painful sting in the world …ahhh- no thank you.

Loved hiking around in Joshua Tree NP although everything screamed “yow , I survived here and that means I am able to kill you if you are not careful and watch your step”

An abandoned car in the park

And then the trip was almost over

And we finished in Santa Monica, had a nice last dinner together and then my husband dropped me off for my workshops in West Village. It was an amazing trip – so inspiring, relaxing, educational and beautiful. I am still processing a lot of the things I saw there and I cannot wait to turn it into my artwork. I hope you enjoyed the little trip :) Thank you for joining me!

 

Nat

Comments (4)

  • Karen Bearse

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    Wow the pics and story make me want to check out the SW! Looks like you had an amazing time. Thanks for sharing your adventure!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Oh Karen, I hope you get to go to the SW- I really loved it and I think you would find it as inspiring!

      Reply

  • Janet

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    So glad you were able to cover so much of the Southwest (my neck of the woods) in one trip! And you shared it so beautifully. I’m looking forward to new stamps and stencils from inspiration gained on this trip (hint hint ;) ). You remind me that I must visit Chaco…I will put it on the calendar NOW! We are fortunate to have history of the Ancients all around us here in Arizona…even in the Phoenix area. I am constantly inspired by the beauty. Btw…I have your husband’s hat, but in turquoise.Thank you again for sharing. Come back when you can stay awhile (and when it is cooler!)

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Janet – it was so amazing- you live in an amazing area! Chaco Canyon was just mind blowing! HA- I think I would like my husband’s hat in Turquoise- my favorite color. Thank you so much for joining me :) Have a a wonderful weekend!

      Reply

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How to Catch your Breath

“sometimes the only way to catch your breath is to loose it completely.”

Love the the color combination -this makes me happy. I played with my new Grove Street Pos. + Neg. ArtFoamies and love the texture they created.

I painted the figure with Neopastels  and I love how they look together with the background I painted with acrylic paint.

I am totally addicted to the neopastels and I am hoping that the big set will be somehow showing up in December ;) HINT HINT

Here are some of the supplies:



Nat

Comments (1)

  • Sherry Canino

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    Beautiful and how true is the quote lol ❤️❤️❤️

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Chaos is a friend of mine

Seriously! LOL- how about you?

I love how this page turned out – it was a demo page for a workshop and there were different areas of color and stamping and I thought I will tie it all together buy using the same colors and embracing the chaos :)

I used my brand new Park Blvd Pos + Negative ArtFoamies as well as the Versailles Pos +Neg. and the Manhattan Border Stamp.

Now …off to getting ahold of some chaos in my studio …because honestly it starts to be not so friend’ly’ anymore- LOL.

Here are some of the supplies that I used for this spread:


Nat

Comments (4)

  • karen bearse

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    Oh yes same! My studio is currently being called the monstrosity!

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    • nathalie-kalbach

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      LOL- I read first “Monastery” – I like Monstrosity :)

      Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Great words for that colorful page.
    Chaos throws me off but it also makes me rise to the occasion.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Sue, depends for me where the chaos is. I am actually in a lot of areas a crazy organized person – but not in my artmaking- LOL

      Reply

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Color Crush Workshop in Coventry, UK for Art Workshops

Last weekend my friend Birgit Koopsen and I taught our 3Day Color Crush Retreat for Art Workshops in Coventry in the U.K.

We had a wonderful group of 34 super talented and sweet ladies creating an art journal from scratch.

Birgit and I both love color but we both have a different style and we set the mood by putting a lot of colorful stuff out.

we started with some color theory and color exercises and some ink drawings and stamping.

so many happy faces – it was such a great group.

Look at all those colors!

Aren’t those gorgeous? The second day we did a lot of gelli printing techniques

Now if you do not call this a yummie color crush!

And we even had a short session for making your own foam stamps outside- the weather was great…who says it is always raining in the U.K?

And a lot of the new Art Foamies were used as well

And of course there was a ton of opportunity to buy some stuff …always love seeing the ArtFoamies, most were gone after 3 days.

It was wonderful to see Tali, Tsila, Iris and Hedi from Israel again -it is so many years ago that I met them when teaching in Tel Aviv. Thanks for coming all the way to the UK to join us.

The third day we started the day off binding the book and adding the covers. I don’t think Hazel and Shirley were really as scared as they look like in the photo when Birgit explained how to add the covers- LOL

After having the book all together we got a treat.

The food for the event was plenty some and so good and on top of that Sue, B, Leroy, Debbie and Pam made all of us feel really pampered during the whole retreat.

And then it was all about finishing up some pages and showing how we layer on top of our backgrounds

 

And…seeing a lot of the ladies with my book “Artful Adventures in Mixed Media”  made me super duper extra happy. I know I am a dork but it really does!

Since I came home this week I feel so energized and inspired- it was such a wonderful retreat. Thank you so much to all of the wonderful students who joined us, for Sue for inviting us and to her and her staff for taking great care of us and to my wonderful friend, partner in crime and very tall co-teacher Birgit! It was amazing.

If you weren’t able to join but would like to take a workshop with me check out my In-Person Classes. I will be teaching at the Queens Ink in Maryland  and at Runaway Art and Craft Studio on November 4-5 and December 2 -3 in Oregon. And if you are interested in taking a workshop with me and Birgit – we are coming back to Syracuse July 20-22, 2018 for a three day fun retreat – so safe the date.

Nat

Comments (10)

  • karen bearse

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    Looks like it was a lot of fun with tons of ink flying!

    Reply

  • Tania

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    I had such an amazing time, and learnt so much from you two,hope to attend another one of your workshops in the future ??

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      It was so good to see you again Tania- hope to see you soon again <3

      Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Looks like y’all had a blast with foamies, food and fun!!!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      It was really fun …the food of course helped- LOL- gotta have food !

      Reply

  • Ally

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    It was such an awesome weekend- wish I could do it every weekend!!! X

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      It was wonderful to have you!!! Hopefully soon again!

      Reply

  • Natalie Jane

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    What an amazing weekend :)
    I cannot wait to finish my book with all the techniques I’ve learned and of course to use YOUR FOAMIES!!!

    Until next time – you and Brigit are a great teaching team xxx

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Natalie it was so wonderful to finally meet you – and you are so talented -rock on with it!!! See you hopefully next year again :) <3

      Reply

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As an Adult…

“She used to think things would be easier as an adult…in a way she still thinks that.” yep- LOL ;)

I played with my new Exchange Place ArtFoamies Stamp. It is a bold stamp with fine lines- I love it.

Very crazy color combination here- but I kinda dig it  – I might not wear it though- LOL

What do you think of the new Exchange Place Foam stamp?

here are some of the supplies I used:


Nat

Comments (2)

  • karen bearse

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    I really like how this all came together- great colors!

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The Sketchy History of Pencils

As some of you might know I live in the old Pencil #2 Factory in Jersey City. While there are no more pencils being made in my building, there is still the General Pencil Company which still operates here in Jersey City. I try to buy a lot of pencils (and also brush cleaner) from General Pencil Company because I love that they are right here and produce locally. No wonder I was totally happy to see this video by NPR’s Skunk Bear “A Sketchy History of Pencils” .


I love seeing how art supplies are being made. What art manufacturer would you like to visit to see how they make things?

 

Nat

Comments (2)

  • Sharyle

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    Enjoyed this video! Fascinating to see how pencils are made. I’d love to visit the Golden paint factory and see how they make all those fabulous colors.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Oh I would love to go there too Sharyle! Thanks for checking in :)

      Reply

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